The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1887-05-07
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
OLD SETTLERS.
MIR. PETER MILLER.

of Mission was Mr. Peter Miller, who built
the first house in the immediate vicinity of
Sheridan. He was born in Ross Co, Ohio
near Chillicothe in 1901, and is now about
81 years old, and though not very strong Is
fat, and in good health, and his mem
ory is unimpaired His father was Ger
man, and came to this country during the
war of the revolution. owned small farm |
in the Buckeye State at the place indicat'
ed, but not large enough to support his
family In much luxury, and Peter, as soon
as strong enough, split rails at SOC hun
bred, and chopped wood at % cents per
cord and in summer when 1t was too hot
70 work in the dense woods which prevail
ed In that region, he dug dry bitches" for
what he could get above his board. In
this way, by unceasng industry he earned
and saved enough to buy wheat sufficient
TO make $50 barrels of flour. He traded
some of the grain, 70 get 80 barrels OF flour
clear. He and a partner then went to New
Orleans on fiat boat with 400 barrels of
flour, which they sold at from S3 to 81 per
barrel On returning, as the result OF his
venture, he had money enough to enter lGO
acres of land and start to farming In Marion
county, Ohio. He built log house and
married Miss Hannah, the eldest sister OF
Abe Holderman, a well known old settler,
who lived at Holderman's grove, on the
stage road, northeast of Ottawa. lie was
then about % Yeas old, hard worker and
very steady and regular in his habits. es-
chewing strong drink and all excuses
His educational advantages had been very
inferior and few, during his boyhood, but
he was possessed of retentive memory,
and has been more or less student all his
life. His marriage resulted in only one
child, Mr.. Dyson Miller, the we'll known
business man of Sheridan, who was born
on the Marion county farm. They lived
there three or four years, when the Illinois
fever having tackled Peter, he surrendered
to its seductive influences, sold his farm,
packed such of his household effects and
traps as he thought might come handy in
the wilderness, put his wife and son upon
his goods, and with large covered movers
wagon, propelled by four good horses,made
his way west through the beach woods OF
Ohio and Indiana, across the prairies OF
this state. to him a most astonishing sight,
and after about four or five weeks travelling
arrived at Ottawa in the spring OF 1882,
and lived here short time, when he went
to Tazwell county, and bought the growing
crops on farm, of which he took posses
sion, owned By man who was frightened
on account OF the Black Hawk war, just
looming up. In the spring of 1888 he left
that farm and went to another in Kendall
county on the east line of La Sale county,
and the next fall moved to the farm south
of and adjoining Sheridan, where he re-
sided till 1870, when he built comfortable
dwelling in that village, in which he still
lives Mrs Miller his faithful wife, died
only few weeks ago, aged n years, She
was lady of uncommon energy and Judg-
ment and was universally respected for her
neighborly kindness and deeds OF CHRIS
ten. like goodness to all who were In need
They met with no Indians on their jour
ney to Illinois till they were near Ottawa,
and they appeared quite friendly, though
rumors of war were then stirring. The
government had not yet surveyed the land
in the vicinity where Sheridan now is, and
he commenced by taking up claim, 'e,
stalking on, the 100 acre farm he wished to
buy lie finally purchased that tract, and
enough more to make in all about 'Oo acres
He relat d an account of the killing or
Barrisford and the wounding Of Capt. Nc
Fadden, but as it is the same as will occur
hereafter in another sketch, we omit It,
In early days he hauled wheat to Chicago
the highest price 1t brought being VIC, the
lowest 60 cents. 1t took four days to make
the trip. The wagons brought back salt
and lumber, and few groceries for nome
consumption. Chicago then was an insig'
nifcant mud hole at the edge of the lake,
at the mouth of the Chicago river, then a
clear stream except when the rains would
wash mud into it and rile its otherwise
limpid current At first there was but one
and then two, and finally three or four tav-
ems at that place. The farmers teams as
they approached the town from different
diverging roads, all entered the burg by
the same route from the west, and would
naturally form long line of wagons
On arriving, the different "taverns
/, would send out runners as impertinent and
yorac ious as their modern congeners, the
, hack men, to solicit patronage and quarrel
with each other, sometimes to the apuse
mept and at others TO the annoyance OF the
granger. Mr.. Miller's family never had
, ague, though lower down on the river, and
in the neighborhood of the big ponds and
t sloughs, lager and miskeeters" prevailed
, TO an unlimited extent. All sorts of wild
| game, such as deer musk rats, mink, web
: footed fowl, sandhill cranes, prairie chick
-. g. ,co.o ,>laptiF,,I apd II was nothing